The NTC QSO party from Spain, EA/PG4I

A few days before the QSO party we arrived in Llanes on the north coast of Spain. I brought along a small trusdx transceiver (QRP-5W), a palm mini paddle and a loaded vertical for 40 meters with 2 radials on a 12m Spiderbeam pole. 45 minutes before the QSO party I set up my station. Made a first QSO with SM/DL3JJ/P from near Stockholm and almost worked a OZ station but QSB was to strong. Then I did a quick CQ which showed RBN spots from PA, DL, F, G and CT. So things were looking good!

At 19:00 UTC the skies darkened and I needed to take a break because of the rain coming in. Then a first QSO at 19:08 with Dali OK2BVX, 559 reports. In the next 50 minutes I contacted 6 Dutch stations: Frank PA7F, Theo PA3HEN, Rene PA3GPX, Carel PA0CMU, Marcel PA3HEB and Wim PA0VAM. Also worked Andy DK9HE from France and Vanni I5ECW, being my last QSO. The QSOs with Marcel and Wim took a while to complete because of my weak signal. 9 contacts in total, I was surprised that it worked so well!

First mobile radio bicycle trip

I took my mobile radio setup out for a 30 minute ride along the river. On the bicycle rack a loaded vertical for 20 meters is installed, 2.6 meters long.

The rig is a (tr)uSDR working on 3 lithium-ion batteries. Have been using a Palm mini paddle attached to a metal plate with magnets.

Operating CW this way wasn't easy, lots of errors. The paddles were up to high and would move around, the magnets are just not strong enough. Also, could not keep my right hand at the handle bar, so driving was very slow... Taking notes was difficult as you can see from my handwriting 😆

After a long CQ I got a reply from UW5FA and a 579 report, not bad! Below is a screenshot from the reversebeacon network. Good coverage! 

Several more tries will be needed for a setup that will work. Stay tuned!

First SOTA close to home

From my home town it is a nice bicycle trip along the river Rhine towards Arnhem, a 50 km ride. From the outskirts of Arnhem it is less then one hour to Signaal Imbosch, the highest point in the national park Veluwezoom at 101 meters.

Close to the summit my path got blocked by a couple of dangerous looking Scottish highlanders, but they were quite relaxed and I saw several bikers passing them.

The last stretch I had to push my bike through the sand and up a steep path. The summit marker was easy to find and was enough space between the trees to put up my 20/30m vertical.

Good propagation and 61 QSO'S in the log after one hour. It may have helped that my activation was both valid for SOTA and WWFF. Equipment: QMX mini and a 30 Watt amplifier. Have been using a Palm mini paddle.

A try at PAFF-0140 Zoommeer

 

Most of PAFF-0140 (a lake and river with some wetlands) is not accessible unless you have permission, but you can set up your station at the edge of the area. I wasn't very lucky: had to camp behind a dike under a 40m high windmill. Here's a screenshot from Google maps.

 

 

Propagation was lousy and 20 meters crowded with a contest going on. The windmill created a lot of noise on the radio. I made 8 QSO's in one hour and gave up in the end... Need to pick a better spot next time I am here!

Activation of PAFF-0108 Rijntakken

This is my first WWFF activation. It's a 12 km bicycle ride to the ferry between Rijswijk and Wijk bij Duurstede, close to PAFF-0108. I set up my station in a field on a small dike close to the river Lek.

I brought a 10 meter spiderbeam pole with an endfed antenna for 20 and 30 meters. The rig is a QCX mini with about 4 Watts output. Propagation was fairly good, got an RBN spot from WZ7I on 20 meters, but activity was low. I worked more stations on 30 meters. 

 

 

Only 14 QSO's  in the log after 90 minutes. One P2P QSO with Wilfried, DL7UWR/P from DLFF-0029, Schorfheide-Chorin. I will try to use my WWFF activations for the GoGreen XOTA program. QSO map of this activation here.